Sunday, May 2nd

Up at 7am again today. We had a 3.5 hour drive to Thekkady. On the way, we drive through a village that was famous for making bricks out of clay and we saw several small “farms” that were dedicated to that purpose. Ram (our driver) pointed out different types of crops that were growing and we saw local villagers bathing and doing laundry in the nearby ponds.

Our hotel in this city was the Tree Top – with beautiful surroundings. We checked into the hotel and then met with our tour guide for the day’s activities.

First stop was a Spice Plantation. We learned about the many, many spices that are grown primarily in India. The top three are:

- #1 – Cardomen (called the queen of spices) used for cooking and medical purposes

- #2 – Pepper (call the king of spices), white (hottest), black (medium) and green (mild) are all grown here

- #3 – Vanilla (called the prince of spices)

Our tour guide – Taj, was a blast! He made a game out of guessing each spice as we walked through the plantation and he was just too funny. We kept hearing thunder as we continued our spice lessons.

Next was our elephant ride. Very cool. We had to walk up a big platform to get on the elephant. It’s amazing how different the view is from up that high. Our elephant’s name was Monica Lewinski – no kidding! Soon after we started, it began to rain, but they had brought umbrellas for us to use. We didn’t stop – just kept on going. I enjoyed that a lot.

Afterward, we went to a local massage parlor and got a 90 minute massage that included a steam bath. This massage was different from the ones I’ve had previously – they didn’t “knead” the body with their thumbs and knuckles – it was more like rubbing and slapping. But the guy that did mine got the huge knot out of my left shoulder so I knew he must be doing something right.

After the massage – we went to see an Indian style martial arts show with swords, planks, shields, knives, etc. It was interesting to watch.

This was really full day – but a very good day too!!